A LAWMAKER has urged the national government to fast track the rehabilitation of the 650-megawatt (MW) Malaya power plant in Pililia, Rizal to allow the Aquino administration to efficiently respond to the looming shortage of supply of electricity early next year.
Isabela Representative Rodolfo Albano III, a member of the House committee on energy, said the 650 MW capacity of the Malaya power plant provides ample support to the Interruptible Load Program (ILP), which will be adopted by the government to address the power supply shortage in the summer of 2015.
The government-owned Malaya power plant is a 40-year-old facility, composed of two units with a dependable capacity of 290 MW and 340 MW each.
The lawmaker noted that Malaya Unit 1 has been non-operational since March 21, 2014, due to a material loss of turbine rotating parts that led to high turbine vibration. Malaya Unit 1's overhauling is expected to be completed before year-end, based on a 90-day completion period.
Malaya Unit 2, on the other hand, is now operational after undergoing repair but is also due for overhauling.
"The government should be able to work double time to rehabilitate the Malaya power plant to ensure that the country would have a steady and stable supply of electricity amidst the feared power supply shortage in Luzon next year," Albano said.
The Department of Energy has said the maximum projected shortfall in reserves next year is expected to be 1,001 MW, of which 600 MW are needed as required dispatchable reserve, and 401 MW for required contingency reserves. (Sunnex)